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HARDWOOD RECORD 



trunks in much the same way as that which causes white heart-rot; 

 but the shelf or fruiting body is quite different in appearance. It 

 is one of the most conspicuous funpri found in the forest. The 

 growth develops as a series of shelves, from two to twenty or more, 

 overlapping on© another. The shelves are sometimes fairly well 

 separated and distinct; at other times they are so close together as 

 to form a mass five or six times as large as a coeoanut. When these 

 shelves are young their upper surfaces are bright orange red, with a 

 deeper red at the edges. Their upper surfaces are very moist, some- 

 ■wh!}t hard, and when bruised, they turn brown. The whole growth 

 is soft and fleshy when young, and when squeezed, a clear, yellowish 

 juice exudes. The fungius becomes harder as it grows older, and 

 at maturity is brittle. It has by that time assumed the sulphur 

 color which gives the name by which it is generally known. This 

 fungus is edible, and is in the class of valuable mushrooms and is 

 eagerlv sought. Various tribes of hungry insects have also dis- 

 covered that it is good to eat, and if musliroom hunters do not 

 quickly gather it, insects do. 



The wood user's interest in sulphur fungus has little to do with 

 its eating qualities, but relates to its destructive effect on timber. 

 It is a heartwood enemy, the same as the tinder fungus, but not so 

 exclusively. It flourishes on dead wood as well as living; but what 

 it does to dead timber is not directly interesting to the man who 

 deals with live trees. 



This fungus attacks many trees, conifers as well as hardwoods. 

 It is particularly destructive of oak. The decayed wood in the trunk 

 looks like reddish-brown charcoal, hence the name red heart-rot. 

 There are various degrees of discoloration, depending upon the species 

 of tree attacked. It i§ darker in most species of oak and lighter in 

 walnut and chestnut. It frequently appears in maple, alder, locust, 

 apple and pear. It is widely distributed in the United States and 

 Canada, as well as in Europe. The decayed wood is characterized 

 by cracks which radiate from the center like spokes of a wheel, and 

 also run round with the annual rings. These cracks develop as the 

 wood is destroyed, and are due to shrinkage as the wood decays. The 

 cracks are not open but contain sheets of fungus, resembling thin 

 leather. These sheets consist of masses of interwoven threads of 

 fungus. If a piece of the wood is shaken or struck, fine dust falls 

 out, and leaves a skeleton of sheets and cross-sheets of fungus. The 

 dust that falls out is brown and brittle. It is reduced to fine pow- 

 der when rubbed between the fingers. 



The decay caused by sulphur fungus is easily recognized by the 

 peculiarities described. In oak the broad medullary rays are the 

 last part of the wood to fall to pieces. As with white heart-rot, 

 young trees are exempt, for the probable reason that they have 

 little or no heartwood, and also for the reason that very young 

 trunks have few* wounds through which the spores or seeds of the 

 fungus can enter. In almost every instance the disease begins in 

 the tree's crown. This is shown by the number of spike-topped trees 

 in old' forests. They die at the top first; but the decay works its 

 way down through the heartwood the whole length of the trunk, 

 and finally reaches the ground and finishes the destruction of the 

 trunk. 



The fruiting bodies appear on the outside of trunks after decay 

 has made considerable progress, and they develop in the latter part 

 of summer. They do not last long, because the swarms of waiting 

 insects pounce on them and devour them in a few days, but not until 

 the millions of spores have fallen out to be borne away on the wind 

 to infect other trees within a radius of miles. The quick destruction 

 of this parasite explains why nobody ever sees an old shelf of it 

 on the side of a tree, as in the ease of tinder fungus. 



It seems to be a saprophyte as well as a parasite — that is, it 

 lives on dead and decayed woods as well as on the living. Sulphur 

 fungus flourishes on old logs and decayed stumps. It is oftener seen 

 there than on the trunks of living trees, probably because it is closer 

 to the ground and more apt to be noticed. It sometimes grows where 

 logs or stumps have so completely decayed as to be little more than 

 heaps of reddish dirt. It is probable that the fungus does not start 

 new growth in such places, but that the fruiting bodies that appear 

 come from old threads which ramified through the trunk while the 



tree still had some life in it. and continued to grow after the trunk 

 decayed and fell. 



The lumberman's direct interest in tlie fungus ceases when it has 

 ruined the tree; but the insideous parasite still has power for harm; 

 for every fruiting body that develops a yellow mass on stump or 

 rotten log throws off clouds of spores to float away and find lodg- 

 ment in the trunks of trees. 



Xo remedy is known. The cutting of diseased trees, as in tho 

 case of tinder fungus, lessens the danger by reducing the uumber 

 of centers from which new contagion will spread. It is to the timber 

 owner 's interest to cut and use trunks as soon as signs of disease 

 are noticed, for some of the trees may still be unaffected, and the 

 loss will not be total. 



There are many other kinds of decay which affect living trees. 

 Some are ■well known, others arc observed only by specialists. The 

 latter kinds are not of particular interest to the user of wood because 

 they are not prevalent; but others cause much loss of timber. One 

 such is piped rot, which is especially destructive of oak and beech. 

 There is difference of opinion as to what fungus produces it. Xo 

 growths appear on the outside of the trunk. The effect within ig 

 well known, and causes much loss, particularly among the hardwood ■ 

 forests of the Mississippi valley. 



The heartwood of diseased trees has a mottled appearance, and 

 as far as reported, the sapwood is never affected. There are irregu- 

 lar, smaU, pocket-like patches of white fibers, separated by small 

 areas of wood which retains almost its normal color. These white 

 areas first appear lens-shaped, but they gradually become longer until 

 they run together, and in course of time, as the disease progresses, 

 there is a series of irregular white lines extending lengthwise with 

 the wood. The small 'cavities often become filled with reddish-brown 

 threads of fungus. In its last stages the diseased wood is composed 

 of loose masses of white fibers mixed with brown threads, and en- 

 closed by thin, unaffected layers of wood. 



This rot may be easily distinguished from all other diseases of 

 deciduous trees on account of the speckled appearance of the affected 

 wood. It attacks trees of all ages, provided they have heartwood. 

 The spores are supposed to find entrance through wounds, such as 

 are caused by the breaking of dead limbs. In oaks the disease gen- 

 erally appears near the tops, and in chestnut near the ground where 

 it seems to originate in the dead wood of old stumps from which 

 the chestnuts have sprouted. 



A disease of oak commonly called soft-rot is due to a fungus 

 known as poJyporus obtusus. The fruiting body is hoof-shaped and 

 nearly pure white when young, but turns darker with age. It never 

 remains long on a tree trunk because insects soon destroy it as they 

 do sulphur fungus. The usual mode of entrance into the trunk is 

 through the hole made by some boring insect. The fruiting body 

 generally grows at the opening of the hole. The threads of fungus 

 follow the opening until they reach the heartwood and they then pene- 

 trate the solid wood both up the trunk and down, and in course of 

 time what was solid wood is reduced to a soft mass. Deterioration 

 is rapid. Trunks sometimes break and fall in a single year. The 

 diseased wood in its last stages turns almost white, but it does not 

 have the shrinkage cracks so common with some of the other rots 

 which attack heartwood. 



Injury from this disease is somewhat lessened by the fact that its 

 worst attacks are made upon trees which are not very valuable, such 

 as rellow and scrub oaks. 



Imports From Haiti 



During the year 1912 Haiti exported to the United States 335,- 

 353 pounds of lignum-vitae and 848,100 pounds of logwood. The 

 former is made into bowling balls and bearings for wheels, but the 

 logwood has its principal use as coloring material. The intensely 

 black pigments in the pores of the wood are extracted, purified, and 

 prepared for use as dyes. The substance is then known in trade as 

 ' ' extract of logwood. ' ' The name logwood was given it originally 

 because the shipments reaching England were in log form, and had 

 no particular name. 



